A group that calls iself #ReThinkPublicSafetySB Coalition arrives with over 75,000 signatures to deliver to a San Bernardino Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. The group is demanding the ouster of San Bernardino County lead gang prosecutor Michael Selyem for a spate of racist, xenophobic and sexist rants on social media.
(Photo by Stan Lim, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Civil rights activists and faith-based groups on Tuesday presented the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors with more than 75,000 signatures on a petition demanding the termination of gang prosecutor Michael Selyem, who created a political firestorm with a series of offensive rants on social media.

“Today, specifically, we are here to deliver over 75,000 signed petitions asking for nothing less than the termination of Michael Selyem as a prosecutor for this county because of his actions — because of his vile words said about a seated, decorated congresswoman, Maxine Waters, his vile comments toward the former first lady, Michelle Obama, and even the calling for an assassination of a young man, even though he did wrong,” said the Rev. Samuel Casey of New Life Christian Church in Fontana and a vice president of Inland Empire Concerned African American Churches.

The grass-roots group, calling itself the “ReThinkPublicSafetySB Coalition, also is demanding that the District Attorney’s Office implement mandatory bias training for all staff, and that the Board of Supervisors allocate funds for it. Members also are calling on the county to allocate more funding for rehabilitation services and youth intervention programs.

Rabbi Hillel Cohn along with a group that call themselves #ReThinkPublicSafetySB Coalition speaks during a San Bernardino Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, July 24, 2018.The group is demanding the ouster of San Bernardino County lead gang prosecutor Michael Selyem for a spate of racist, xenophobic and sexist rants on social media.
(Photo by Stan Lim, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

A group that calls iself #ReThinkPublicSafetySB Coalition arrives with over 75,000 signatures to deliver to a San Bernardino Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. The group is demanding the ouster of San Bernardino County lead gang prosecutor Michael Selyem for a spate of racist, xenophobic and sexist rants on social media.
(Photo by Stan Lim, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

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A group that call themselves #ReThinkPublicSafetySB Coalition arrive with over 75,000 signatures to deliver to a San Bernardino Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, July 24, 2018.The group is demanding the ouster of San Bernardino County lead gang prosecutor Michael Selyem for a spate of racist, xenophobic and sexist rants on social media.
(Photo by Stan Lim, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Rev. Sam Casey, with Inland Empire Concerned African American Churches, along with a group that call themselves #ReThinkPublicSafetySB Coalition arrive with over 75,000 signatures during a San Bernardino Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, July 24, 2018.The group is demanding the ouster of San Bernardino County lead gang prosecutor Michael Selyem for a spate of racist, xenophobic and sexist rants on social media.
(Photo by Stan Lim, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Aaron Bratton, with Color of Change, speaks at the podium as a group that call themselves #ReThinkPublicSafetySB Coalition hold up boxes containing over 75,000 signatures during a San Bernardino Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, July 24, 2018.The group is demanding the ouster of San Bernardino County lead gang prosecutor Michael Selyem for a spate of racist, xenophobic and sexist rants on social media.
(Photo by Stan Lim, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

A group that call themselves #ReThinkPublicSafetySB Coalition arrive with over 75,000 signatures during a San Bernardino Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, July 24, 2018.The group is demanding the ouster of San Bernardino County lead gang prosecutor Michael Selyem for a spate of racist, xenophobic and sexist rants on social media.
(Photo by Stan Lim, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

“Mr. Selyem’s hateful comments cannot help but fill us all with outrage,” Rabbi Hillel Cohn of Congregation Emanu El in Redlands told the Board of Supervisors during its Tuesday meeting in San Bernardino. “His words are inexcusable and deserve the most powerful kind of condemnation that you as a body can articulate.”

Among Selyem’s inappropriate online posts include an argument he had with someone over the police shooting of a civilian. In it, he wrote, “That (expletive) got exactly what he deserved. … You reap what you sow. And by the way go (expletive) yourself you liberal (expletive).”

Selyem also targeted outspoken U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, former first lady Michelle Obama, and Mexican immigrants.

Of Waters, Selyem said: “Being a loud-mouthed (expletive) in the ghetto you would think someone would have shot this bitch by now …” He also posted a doctored picture of Michelle Obama holding a sign saying, “Trump grabbed my penis.”

Another of Selyem’s posts included a meme showing a man in a giant sombrero with the words, “Mexican word of the day: Hide.”

Michael Selyem, the lead hard-core gang prosecutor in the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office, is under internal investigation for a series of offensive posts on social media accounts that have now been deleted. (Staff photo by Jennifer Cappuccio Maher/The Sun/SCNG)

District Attorney Michael Ramos has refrained from commenting further on Selyem’s employment following a July 9 news conference at his office, when he announced that the veteran prosecutor had been placed on paid administrative leave and that an investigation into his actions would be expanding.

The announcement came three days after the Southern California News Group detailed Selyem’s rants, which became national news and caught the attention of civil rights activists from across the nation, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

“This is an ongoing personnel issue and we will not be releasing any further details or information at this time,” district attorney’s spokesman Christopher Lee said in an email Tuesday.

The day Selyem was placed on paid leave, Ramos said all of his cases had been reassigned, and that the office had a case review unit that would re-evaluate any case Selyem prosecuted upon request from any current or former defendant.

The group has also called on a thorough investigation by the District Attorney’s Office of all its employees to ferret out any other biased prosecutors.

“We call on you to re-evaluate, and if necessary, to reapportion funds allocated to the DA’s Office to include sufficient funding to carry out a comprehensive investigation of the DA’s Office and its employees that will assure that every possible step has been taken to end any and all forms of racism both overt and subtle,” Cohn told the Board of Supervisors. “Such behavior on the part of public officials is simply intolerable.”

Joe Nelson is an award-winning investigative reporter who has worked for The Sun since November 1999. He started as a crime reporter and went on to cover a variety of beats including courts and the cities of Colton, Highland and Grand Terrace. He has covered San Bernardino County since 2009. Nelson is a graduate of California State University Fullerton. In 2014, he completed a fellowship at Loyola Law School's Journalist Law School program.

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